The processes of digestion, assimilation and elimination of food and drink in themselves require a considerable expenditure of vital force.  Therefore all food taken in excess of the actual needs of the body consumes life force that should be available for other purposes, for the execution of physical and mental work.

The Romans had a proverb:  “Plenus venter non studet libenter”—­“A full stomach does not like to study.”  The most wholesome food, if taken in excess, will clog the system with waste matter just as too much coal will dampen and extinguish the fire in the furnace.

Furthermore, the morbid materials and systemic poisons produced by impure, unsuitable or wrongly combined foods will clog the cells and tissues of the body, cause unnecessary friction and obstruct the inflow and the operations of the vital energies, just as dust in a watch will clog and impede the movements of its mechanism.

The greatest artist living cannot draw harmonious sounds from the strings of the finest Stradivarius if the body of the violin is filled with dust and rubbish.  Likewise, the life force cannot act perfectly in a body filled with morbid encumbrances.

The human organism is capable of liberating and manifesting daily a limited quantity of vital force, just as a certain amount of capital in the bank will yield a specified sum of interest in a given time.  If more than the available interest be withdrawn, the capital in the bank will be decreased and gradually exhausted.

Similarly, if we spend more than our daily allowance of vital force, “nervous bankruptcy,” that is, nervous prostration or neurasthenia will be the result.

It is the duty of the physician to regulate the expenditure of vital force according to the income.  He must stop all leaks and guard against wastefulness.

Stimulation by Paralysis

This heading may seem paradoxical, but it is borne out by fact.  Stimulants are poison to the system.  Few people realize that their exhilarating and apparently tonic effects are produced by the paralysis of an important part of the nervous system.

If, as we have learned, wholesome food and drink in themselves do not contain and therefore cannot convey life force to the human body, much less can this be accomplished by stimulants.

The human body has many correspondences with a watch.  Both have a motor or driving mechanism and an inhibitory or restraining apparatus.

If it were not for the inhibiting balances, the wound watchspring would run off and spend its force in a few moments.  The expenditure of the latent force in the wound spring must be regulated by the inhibitory and balancing mechanism of the timepiece.

Similarly, the nervous system in the animal and human organism consists of two main divisions:  the motor or driving and the inhibitory or restraining mechanisms.

The driving power is furnished by the sympathetic nerves and the motor nerves.  They convey the vital energies and nerve impulses to the cells and organs of the body, thus initiating and regulating their activities.